CHAPTER ONE Exploration Changing Perspectives of the Earth Humans have been exploring since the dawn of history In fact history itself is often marked by new findings or discoveries Any time a person explores a place nobody has ever been to before they increase humankind’s understanding of it This idea has propelled many of history’s greatest discoveries about the physical world we call Earth 4
Scientific exploration helped determine that the world is round not flat It also helped map Earth’s continents oceans mountains caves and remote islands Until only very recently the greatest feats of exploration were limited to planet Earth itself Centuries ago exploration was done by ships sailing across the oceans to learn how the world was laid out 5
The reach of human exploration has expanded through history This is in many ways a direct consequence of scientific advancement and improving technology The instinct to explore has been in place since humans first contemplated a mountaintop an ocean or even the Moon and stars But science has taken the will to explore and helped develop the way to reach places never before seen by human eyes 1522 Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan took three years to sail a ship around the globe thereby demonstrating Earth is round not flat 1800 Invention of theodolite surveying tool allows accurate mapping of European continent 1927 Pilot Charles Lindbergh becomes first person to fly an airplane across the Atlantic Ocean without stopping 1960 Submarine Trieste locates and explores Earth’s greatest ocean depth 1953 First climbers to reach the summit of Earth’s tallest mountain Mount Everest 6 1969 NASA puts first humans on the Moon
Satellite technology has allowed photographic imaging of other planets and moons It wasn’t until 1953 that human exploration reached the top of Thanks to the work of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA human exploration has increased at an astronomical rate in the past half century the world’s highest mountain Seven years later in 1960 a manned submarine descended to the deepest point of the ocean That meant it took all of recorded history up to that point for humans to reach the highest and lowest spots here on Earth Just nine years later in 1969 NASA explored the Moon 7
